International Holocaust Remembrance Day
Educational resources on anti-Jewish, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination now available
January 20, 2025
I am pleased to announce that the Equity & Inclusion Office has now released three, new anti-discrimination educational resource modules. These are:
- Introduction to UBC’s Human Rights Obligations and Discrimination Policy
- Introduction to Anti-Jewish Discrimination
- Introduction to Anti-Arab and Anti-Muslim Discrimination
The Introduction to UBC’s Human Rights Obligations and Discrimination Policy is a pre-requisite learning module to be engaged with prior to the other complementary modules. The resources are part of a forthcoming and expansive Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Learning Foundations series.
Through 2024, the EIO made progress to expand its online educational resource hub to raise awareness around a range of equity and inclusion topics. The booklets released today include information on the legal framework that guides university processes to address discrimination, on what constitutes anti-Jewish, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination and hate, on examples of myths and stereotypes that contribute to discriminatory tropes about Jewish, Arab and Muslim people, on harmful intergroup and intragroup dynamics, and on considerations to uphold both obligations to academic freedom and anti-discrimination in the academy.
During the development of the resources, I engaged a deeply relational and dialogic process and met regularly with Jewish, Arab and Muslim students, faculty and staff, including those who are involved with relevant community groups active on our campus. I’m grateful to those who participated in the year-long engagement process, and am hopeful that the resources will help UBC community members and university leaders continue to foster a campus culture where everyone feels a sense of inclusion, belonging and safety.
While there are other educational resources available on these topics, these modules are designed to provide a foundation for our community to understand and address discrimination in the UBC context. The content is grounded in the Canadian human rights legal framework, the B.C. Human Rights Code, UBC’s policies, and the EIO’s mandate. The resources also reflect the EIO’s critically-oriented, intersectional, trauma-informed and multipartial practice.
For assistance on how to use these educational resources for broader learning opportunities, please submit a consultation request with our office. For concerns about possible experiences of discrimination, please submit a human rights advising request.
Arig al Shaibah, Ph.D.
Associate Vice-President, Equity and Inclusion
AVPEI end of year reflection
December 10, 2024
By Dr. Arig al Shaibah, Associate Vice-President Equity & Inclusion and Honorary Associate Professor Educational Studies
As we near the end of the 2024 calendar year, I’m pleased to share highlights of some 2024 achievements and a few aspirational goals looking ahead to 2025.
December days of significance
Before I list some of our accomplishments and aspirations, let me point to the December days of significance relevant to our equity and inclusion mandate.
December 3 marked the International Day of Persons with Disabilities and UBC hosted several opportunities to engage with and celebrate the day. December 6 is the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence against Women and in respect of this day, UBC lowers the flags on the UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan campuses to half-mast and hosts the annual 14 Not Forgotten ceremonies, organized by the Faculty of Applied Science at UBC Vancouver (UBCV) and the School of Engineering at UBC Okanagan (UBCO). December 10is Human Rights Day, a day of particular relevance to the EIO and university’s efforts to advance, educate and advise on human rights.
For more information on cultural and religious days of significance, access the multicultural/faith calendar.
Retrospective: 2024 highlights
I want to sincerely thank the entire UBC Equity & Inclusion Office (EIO) team for their ongoing efforts to enable the university to advance its equity and inclusion goals and priorities this past year. I also want to thank all portfolio and Faculty equity leads for completing the first iteration of the StEAR inventory. We gained extremely valuable insights into the extent of equity anti-racism engagement across our campuses and the successes, as well as barriers, in progressing the work. Those learnings contributed to our first StEAR Progress Report.
Thank you, also, to all the community members who participated in more than 20 events and various initiatives organized by our office, including joining one of several StEAR town halls organized in the summer, attending regular EDI Action Network meetings, finding community through affinity groups, completing the Employment Equity Survey – which now has a very healthy response rate of 89 per cent – and much more.
We have launched the second year of the reimagined StEAR Enhancement Fund, and have now completed two of the three calls for applications, disbursing some $200,000 in support of student, faculty and staff-led initiatives which aim to address racial, gender, and disability equity. Decisions on the last set of applications due December 16 will be shared in January 2025.
Forthcoming: 2025 highlights
Advancing accessibility at UBC
Looking ahead to 2025, we will continue to progress work on institutional accessibility planning and implementation in accordance with the Accessible BC Act. We have established an accessibility hub and developed an accessibility feedback form soon to be launched. We will also be releasing the first iteration of a comprehensive accessibility plan in the new year, to be followed by a robust campus consultation to further inform the refinement of the plan. We are also hiring an additional staff member to lead accessibility planning efforts.
Reporting on employee and student diversity
In spring, we are looking forward to releasing the 2024 edition of the annual Employment Equity Report, which will include further refinements such as intersectional data. We are also working with the Planning and Institutional Analysis Office (PAIR) to release the university’s first Student Diversity Census report.
Launching an educational resource hub
We have been working on an online educational resource hub, and we will begin to post new resources that are part of an EDI Foundations Series that will be launched next year. Among those resources are three educational booklets, one on human rights obligations, one on anti-Jewish discrimination, and one on anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination. Additionally, we will soon be releasing a new version of the hiring equity course and associated guides to support hiring equity in faculty and staff recruitment.
Supporting Black excellence
In 2024, the university has launched the second year of the Black Faculty Cohort Hiring Initiative, and the EIO has invested in administrative support to an expanding Black Faculty Network established to advise on UBC’s Black Excellence commitments. Looking to 2025, we will continue to support these efforts, which will include forthcoming engagement opportunities and informational and community building resources. For more information about and/or to join the network, please send us an email.
While the work to advance equity and inclusion across the university and in our communities is rewarding in terms of its promise to improve educational and employment access and equity, it has been a particularly challenging year in the face of geo-political events and their implications on fostering a culture of respect and inclusion as well as institutional transformations to address the root causes of historic, persistent and systemic marginalization. With that consideration, I wish everyone some respite over the holiday closure so that we restore our energy for the work that remains ahead.
Arig
Days of Significance, Featured, Messages from the AVP, News and Stories |
November days of significance and campus community-building
November 6, 2024
This November marks several commemorative days that are relevant for the Equity & Inclusion Office (EIO) to acknowledge given their implications for the sense of inclusion and belonging for our diverse domestic and international campus communities.
November days of significance
November marks the 3rd annual Hindu Heritage Month and the second anniversary of Lebanese Heritage Month in Canada. Such heritage months invite us to learn more about and support the preservation of the cultures, histories and universal rights of diasporic communities in Canada.
During this month, we also commemorate the rights of transgender people and women. Trans Week of Awareness takes place from November 13 to the 19, culminating in Trans Day of Remembrance – a worldwide observance on November 20. UBC will fly the transgender flag during the week and lower all flags on the 20. Soon after, we recognize the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on November 25th, which kicks off 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. To learn more about the trans rights, trans inclusion and trans affirming care as well as campus events and resources broadly attending to gender-based rights and gender equity/justice at the Vancouver and Okanagan campuses – visit events.ubc.ca/tdor.
November is also the month in which communities across the world are invited to recognize the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, observed on November 29.
The EIO always acknowledges days of significance with full awareness of the socio-cultural and geo-political context of the day, and the complexity of impacts on UBC’s diverse and globally interconnected communities. Faculty, students and staff continue to feel the reverberations of the ongoing and expanding violence associated with the Israel-Palestine-Lebanon conflict – whether we have ancestral and diasporic ties to and/or family in the region, or we are deeply emotionally and intellectually engaged with the region through research and teaching, or we are involved in professional and scholarly collaborations in the region or we deeply empathize with the devastation in the region and are searching for ways that we can make a difference in promoting peace and justice.
Through these difficult times, the EIO continues to engage community-building initiatives to promote and protect human rights, educational and employment equity, as well as a sense of inclusion, belonging and safety. I want to share some of the most recent work in this regard.
Protecting rights and freedoms
Aligned with our mandate, we continue to work with UBC leaders and community members to foster living, learning and working environments that are free from discrimination, harassment, and violence based on protected human rights grounds. We reiterate the university’s obligations to protect human rights and academic freedom as well as the value of freedom of expression including the freedom to peacefully protest to our society.
In response to inquiries and concerns related to discrimination, the EIO continues to offer confidential and impartial human rights advising, facilitation of informal resolution, and referral to campus resources, including the Investigations Office, where appropriate.
Promoting education and community-building
To foster a culture of respect for human rights and encourage constructive critical debate and dialogue, the EIO will soon be releasing an online educational series, including a module on UBC’s obligations under its Discrimination Policy as well as modules on various forms of discrimination, including anti-Arab, anti-Asian, anti-Black, anti-Indigenous and anti-Jewish discrimination.
To facilitate community-building, the EIO is partnering with academic residential colleges to pilot restorative community practices, which offer voluntary opportunities for resident community members to participate in series of conversations aimed to enhance the sense of inclusion, belonging and safety across the diverse community.
To encourage critical and constructive academic dialogue and debate, the EIO is offering financial sponsorship of academic and co-curricular events, in accordance with the Strategic Equity & Anti-Racism Enhancement Fund eligibility criteria and guidelines for sponsorship of campus community-led equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives
For more information, contact the Associate Vice-President, Equity and Inclusion.
Leticia Pamela Garcia
November 6, 2024
Manager, Student and Community Engagement
Campus: UBC Vancouver
Pronouns: She/her/hers
I’m a seasoned anti-racist educator with extensive experience in higher education and community engagement. Skilled in facilitation, strategic planning, and building community partnerships, I prioritize kindness, education, and accountability in my leadership and actions. I love laughing, movement and music.
Outside of work, my most cherished roles are as mom, daughter, partner, tia, sister and companion to my labradoodle, Jet.
Email:
pam.garcia@ubc.ca
Address:
Brock Commons South Building
6180 Walter Gage Road
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1
Community and Capacity Building Team, Our Team, UBC Vancouver Team |
Complete revised Employment Equity Survey
October 7, 2024
You are invited to complete the 2024 revision of the Employment Equity Survey. This confidential online survey helps inform the university’s understanding of the demographic composition of faculty and staff and efforts to ensure equity and fairness in employment practices.
New this year, the survey includes an additional response option among disaggregated ethno-racial population groups and an additional question on disability which supports UBC’s compliance under the Federal Contractor’s Program.
Join over 84 per cent of UBC employees who have participated to date – it takes three minutes, and your information remains confidential and secure. If you previously completed the survey, please update your responses.
The greater the participation rate of UBC employees, the more accurate the data analysis will be, supporting sound leadership planning and decision-making around recruitment, promotion and retention.
As one way to examine patterns and trends in employment across the university, your participation in the survey will enable leadership to take important steps to identify and remove systemic barriers to equity and will help inform the implementation and evaluation of UBC’s equity and antiracism commitments and priorities outlined in the Strategic Equity and Anti-Racism Framework and Roadmap for Change.
A few minutes of your time spent completing this survey will provide UBC with better and more accurate data to advance equity and inclusion in our workplaces.
To learn more about employment equity at UBC, visit https://equity.ubc.ca/resources/employment-equity/.
Please visit our Employment Equity Survey page to learn more about the survey and explore frequently asked questions. To learn more about how the data is reported, please review the 2023 Employment Equity Report.
The deadline is October 31.
Days of significance and fostering a culture of inclusion and belonging
October 1, 2024
By Dr. Arig al Shaibah, Associate Vice-President Equity & Inclusion and Honorary Associate Professor Educational Studies
As part of my welcoming remarks at a recent new employee orientation session, I mentioned the Equity & Inclusion Office’s (EIO) efforts to foster a culture of inclusion and belonging through the recognition of particular days of significance. This is just one of many ways that UBC can convey respect for and raise awareness about major religious and cultural observances as well as local and international commemorative events that are resonant and relevant to our diverse global community of students, faculty and staff.
An awareness of these days of significance enables people managers, supervisors, instructors, coaches and others in decision-making positions to proactively consider when consequential professional and academic events are scheduled or to prepare for the provision of concessions or accommodations so that students, faculty and staff are able to participate in observances or events that are often integral to their emotional, spiritual and social well-being.
Religious accommodations are important given UBC’s obligations to ensure that learning and working environments do not discriminate on the basis of religion, in accordance with UBC’s Discrimination Policy (SC7).
In addition to communicating days of significance, the EIO subscribes to and has made available as a community resource a comprehensive calendar that includes a broad array of important religious and cultural days and commemorative events.
Days of significance for Jewish and Muslim people are converging in a particularly poignant way this October. As we continue to hold space for grief, we also wish to make space for Jewish and Muslim community members who wish to recognize the following important religious and commemorative events:
- Two High Holy Days of Judaism take place in October: Rosh Hashanah, which begins at sundown on October 2and ends after nightfall on October 4, and Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year in Judaism, which is observed from minutes before sunset on October 11 to after nightfall on October 12.
- October is also Canada’s Islamic History Month. Proclaimed by Parliament in 2007, the month invites recognition of, and dialogue and education related to, the cultural heritage and contributions of Muslim people to world history and knowledge.
During this time, it is important that Jewish students, faculty and staff feel safe and supported to observe their high holy days, and that Muslim students, faculty and staff feel safe and supported to recognize their cultural heritage and their historical and intellectual contributions.
Support resources available to students, faculty and staff:
- Information on other observances and religious accommodations and human rights advising
- Supports for students at UBC Vancouver
- Supports for students at UBC Okanagan
Building campus capacity
In addition to raising awareness of days of significance, the EIO is also developing an online educational series to further build UBC community members’ capacity to cultivate learning and working environments that respect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all UBC students, faculty and staff.
Within the educational series are introductory modules about antisemitism/anti-Jewish discrimination, anti-Arab discrimination, and Islamophobia/anti-Muslim discrimination. Over the last year, it has been a privilege to engage and consult with Jewish, Arab and Muslim faculty on the development of these forthcoming introductory modules. I want to thank these faculty members for the tremendous emotional and intellectual labour they contributed to this work. The process was complex but rewarding in the creation of space for diverse faculty perspectives to be heard and in the discovery of shared understandings despite outstanding divergences in viewpoints and experiences.
The resource, which will be released in the coming weeks, intends to build UBC community capacity to cultivate learning and working environments that respect the fundamental rights and freedoms of all Jewish, Arab and Muslim students, faculty and staff and that promote their sense of inclusion, belonging and safety.
The resource reinforces that while academic debate and critical dialogue are foundational to academic freedom and the mission of the university, discriminatory and hate speech targeting Jewish, Arab and Muslim peoples as members of an identifiable group (based on ancestry, colour, place of origin, political belief, race, or religion, for example) are unacceptable violations of UBC’s policies and laws in Canada. This is not to say that impassioned expressions equate to disrespect or discrimination according to UBC’s Respectful Environment Statement (RES) or Discrimination Policy (SC7) – they may simply be expressions of strong disagreement. And, this is also not to say that expressions that do not violate UBC’s RES and SC7 cannot be experienced as invalidations of or insults to one’s identity and personhood – intentional or not.
The EIO plans to build on this resource and the process. We will continue to work in consultation with our communities in supporting a learning and working environment that fosters a culture of inclusion and belonging in these particularly polarized times.
Access our guide to navigating human rights and expression rights with an ethic of care.
Days of Significance, Featured, Messages from the AVP, News and Stories |
Communicating progress on StEAR implementation
September 27, 2024
A year since the launch of the StEAR Framework and Roadmap for Change, the Associate Vice-President, Equity and Inclusion engaged UBC’s leadership across 15 different touch points and hosted 5 virtual sessions for UBC community members to share progress made to date.
The 20 engagements provided an opportunity for community members to directly ask questions and provide feedback on the work to date.
Over 400 community members registered for the five virtual community sessions, four of which were sessions specifically for members of various communities, including racialized, disabled, 2SLGBTQIA+, HPSM students, faculty and staff.
A high-level summary was also presented to a number of different leadership groups at UBC including the UBC executive, Deans, and administrative and academic leadership bodies at UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan.
At both the leadership and community-based events, the presentation was well received overall. Opportunities for further improvement and continued engagement were identified, discussed in the Q&A section below.
The presentation provided a background overview of the StEAR Framework and Roadmap for Change development process, StEAR evaluation approach, including the status of institutional strategic actions, inventory of unit-level activities and institutional indicators of change, and spotlight initiatives.
*Note: Some session presentations also contained additional information relevant to a particular community of focus.
Discussion themes
Throughout the sessions, we received a total of 159 questions across the five community engagement sessions held. These questions reflected deep community engagement and highlighted a broad spectrum of concerns regarding the ongoing implementation of equity and anti-racism initiatives at UBC. Here is a summary of the primary themes that emerged from the questions posed by participants
Accessibility and Accommodations: This theme was the most prominent during the engagement session with disabled students, faculty, and staff, highlighting significant interest in UBC’s compliance with the Accessible BC Act, the development of comprehensive accessibility plans, and the procedures for ensuring educational and facility accessibility.
StEAR Framework Implementation and Strategic Priorities: This theme was central to many inquiries, focusing on the methodologies for identifying and prioritizing equity and anti-racism actions within UBC, the role of central units versus individual departments, and the overall consistency and effectiveness of the framework’s implementation across different campuses and faculties.
Data and Metrics: This theme was one of the top emerging themes at all five community engagement sessions, highlighting participants’ keen interest in understanding how data is collected, analyzed, and utilized to inform and evaluate the university’s equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives.
Leadership and Institutional Commitment: This theme was the most prominent at the engagement session for 2SLGBTQIA+ students, faculty, and staff. Participants were interested in the depth of involvement and dedication of UBC’s leadership in advancing the Strategic Equity and Anti-Racism (StEAR) framework, as well as how those who are working to advance equity and anti-racism from outside of formal leadership structures, can be recognized for their contributions.
EDI Funding and Resource Allocation: This theme was the most prominent at the open engagement session for all UBC students, faculty, and staff, with questions focusing on the allocation of resources for EDI initiatives, especially the StEAR Enhancement Fund.
Complaint Processes and Accountability: This theme was one of the top emerging themes at the engagement session for racialized students, faculty, and staff. Participants expressed a strong desire to understand the mechanisms UBC has in place for handling complaints related to human rights and discrimination, with a particular focus on issues concerning racial and disability equity.
Antisemitism and Jewish Engagement: There was considerable interest at the engagement session for HPSM students, faculty, and staff in how UBC is engaging with the Jewish community and addressing issues of antisemitism.
Community Engagement and Advocacy: Participants expressed a strong interest in how UBC plans to foster deeper engagement with various community groups and ensure their active participation in shaping equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) initiatives.
What’s next?
The engagement sessions provided us with first-hand insight into how implementation efforts are received by the UBC community and valuable feedback to consider as we continue to evolve this work going forwards in our attempts to be as responsive as possible to community experiences and needs. The additional resources below share additional information about our work to address the themes raised.
Moving forward, the EIO will employ an iterative approach to updating the StEAR Roadmap for Change based on a broad spectrum of feedback. We will also continue gathering progress updates on institutional actions, sharing information about unit-level activities, and monitoring indicators of change. We will share an interim update in December 2024 and a Progress Report in June 2025.
We acknowledge and are grateful to the UBC community, staff, faculty and students, for their ongoing commitments and engagement to advance equity and anti-racism, accountability and engagement.
Additional Information & Resources
The below resources provide additional information regarding the themes raised in the sessions.
- UBC Accessibility Committee
- Centre for Workplace Accessibility (staff and faculty)
- Centre for Accessibility (UBCV Students)
- Disability Resource Centre (UBCO Students)
- 2024 StEAR Progress Report
- 2023 Employment Equity Report
- Student Diversity Census
- EDI Action Network
- Faculty and Portfolio equity leads
- StEAR Enhancement Fund – Apply for Funding
- Human rights advising
- Discrimination complaints process
- Navigating human rights and expression rights with an ethic of care
- Networks, clubs, and committees
- Newsletters
Additional resources and initiatives are in development related to themes around accessibility and antisemitism. For example, the EIO is developing an EDI educational resource hub on accessibility, human rights, equity and anti-racism, including on antisemitism, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination as forms of racism. The Accessibility Committee and Accessibility Planning Team are also in the process of developing an Accessibility plan.
If you are looking for further opportunities to engage with the EIO and/or StEAR please reach out at info@equity.ubc.ca or sign up for our newsletter.
If you need support with unit-level efforts to advance equity and anti-racism efforts, submit a request for a consultation with our office or reach out to your Faculty or portfolio equity lead.